Persons with physical impairments face special challenges in accomplishing some of the ordinary tasks in daily life. A variety of devices such as wheelchairs and grab rails are available to assist those with physical impairments to accomplish these daily tasks. One of the most challenging tasks for those with physical impairments and for those that care for them is the task of bathing. A person with a physical impairment may find it very difficult or impossible to get in and out of a bathtub or shower. This task remains difficult even when assistance is available. Therefore, there is a need for a device which allows a person to be easily moved into and out of a bathtub or shower and to be comfortably supported while bathing.
In many cases, a person with physical impairments shares living quarters with other persons who do not require assistance in bathing. Therefore, it is desirable that any device designed to assist the person with physical impairments not present an obstacle to other persons sharing the living quarters who may also wish to use the bathtub or shower. For this reason, it is desirable that a bathing assistance device be easily removed from the bathtub or shower area when not in use. It is also desirable that the assistance device be easily stored and transported so that it may be taken with the user when he or she travels or is moved to a new location. These criteria make it desirable that the assistance device be light in weight and as compact as possible.
Previous approaches to providing assistance devices for bathing have fallen into two categories: permanent installations and temporary or removable devices. Permanent installations, as the name implies, entail a physical alteration of the room in which the bathing area is located to allow the permanent installation. These devices also necessarily are not easily moved to a new location or taken along on a vacation. They may also present an obstacle to other users.
Previous approaches to temporary installations have all fallen short of providing ease of use and ease of removal, storage, and transport. U.S. Pat. No. 4,091,479 to Hancock discloses a bathing seat which lacks the ability to fold for storage or transport. The design also uses only one transfer rail making it very difficult to provide a movable seat that is both easy to move and sufficiently stable to support a patient during transfer and bathing. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,253,203 and 4,359,791 to Thomas show a cumbersome transfer trolley that lacks a pivoting seat. This shortcoming makes the Thomas transfer bench difficult to get on and off. The Thomas transfer bench does allow the bench to fold but does not do so easily and presents a cumbersome package.